


The Extraordinary Theory of It All

by fayesilo



Series: Of Worlds and Universes [1]
Category: Criminal Minds, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff and Smut, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-06
Updated: 2015-07-21
Packaged: 2018-04-03 03:03:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 21,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4084180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fayesilo/pseuds/fayesilo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose Tyler has fallen through the Void and has landed herself in a completely different universe. Nineteen years old and separated from everyone she knows, she has to find her way in this world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Anniversaries

**Author's Note:**

> So, just a little back story here before you go into reading this: It's going to jump around. Nothing is linear.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose Tyler has fallen through the Void and has landed herself in a completely different universe. Nineteen years old and separated from everyone she knows, she has to find her way in this world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, just a little backstory here before you go into reading this: It's going to jump around. Nothing is linear.
> 
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> [](http://s19.photobucket.com/user/inuyasha_kagome0001/media/Commission%20fayeXsilo.png.html)  
> 
> 
>  
> 
> Beautiful art that I had commissioned for this story by [AnaKris](http://anakris.deviantart.com/) on deviantart

She thinks he is at his most handsome when he’s fast asleep and not drowning in all the sorrow he has to deal with in the waking world from the cases he handles at work. His body loose rather than rigid, his face smooth and lips lightly parted. She likes to watch as his eyes move beneath his lids, especially when the dreams are vivid and little sighs fall from his mouth. 

She’ll trace her finger along his brow, down the ridge of his nose, across his upper and lower lip, down his chin, up his jaw. Always in this way, always ever so gently so as not to startle. 

During her second run through, his lips move against her finger in a light kiss. She meets his eyes, winded by the softness of them beneath his lashes. They’d been together for two years now and he still took her breath away.

“You know, Rose,” he cleared his throat softly, trying to rid himself of the gravelly voice that sleep had brought on, “I’m beginning to sense a pattern here.”

“Is that so, Supervisory Special Agent Dr. Spencer Reid?” her tongue is in her teeth and her hand is still along his jaw, her fingers moving in a slow back-and-forth pattern. 

Rose never called him by just doctor, and he knew why. There were no secrets between them, no lies. She knew about his past drug use and he knew about the Doctor. Every last story there was to tell up until the moment she had met his eyes across the office of the BAU and all those memories began to sting a little less.

She feels her smile grow wider as she watches him begin to show a soft smile of his own, “Ooh, you know I love it when you do that.”

 “Is that so? Tell me what else you love.” She’s moved so her arms are around him and his around her, one of his long fingers drawing slow circles on her side under the hem of her ridden up night dress.

He sighs, pretending like he has to seriously think about it, “I love my mother.”

She nods her head, humming her approval.

“I love saving people and putting away the bad guys, my extended family at the BAU,” He shifts so she is under him, making sure that all her attention is on him before continuing, “and most of all you. I love you.”

She smiles slyly, “Is that so?”

He makes a quick face, one she’s familiar with, light frown, crinkled brow. It was Spencer’s confused face, “I don’t get one back?”

Rose bit her bottom lip softly, flitting her eyes to the side quickly before bringing them back into focus on him. He knew what she was getting at already, he profiled for a living, he had her figured out from the moment she said his full name, “Y’know, watchin’ you work today-“ She rolled her hips up into his own, “was pretty hot.”

He chuckles lightly, “Insatiable, I believe that’s the word they would use to describe you.”

“Is that the word you would use to describe me?”

“Among other things.” He leans down, his lips hovering only a breath above her own. 

She moves to capture his mouth with hers, but he dodges her. His nose nudges her jaw as he peppers kisses along her neck and throat. She moans softly, her fingers twining through his hair.

“How else would you describe me?”

She feels his lips move gently across her skin, light brushes accompanied by soft breaths, “Intelligent.” A light kiss, “Independent.” A flick of his tongue, “Brave.” A soft nip, “Above all, beautiful.”

She tilts her head back further, another moan curling out of her mouth followed by a light chuckle, “You spoil me.”

Spencer answers her in kisses down her throat, light licks across her clavicle. His hands move slowly up her side to pull off her baby doll nightgown. She watches him as he looks her up and down, his eyes hooded as he speaks softly, “Gorgeous.”

He covers one of her small breasts with his hand, his thumb rubbing across her nipple and causing it to bead as he leans down to nuzzle the other one with a cheek. His hot breath ghosts over her skin as she rolls her hips into his and she’s breath taken by his responding groan. He brushes his lips along her chest, gentle whispers that he times with the move of his thumb along the opposite breast.

Rose whines a little as he pulls away from her, but is immediately satisfied as he removes his shirt and begins kissing his way down her ribs and stomach. A light peck at every rib bone, a soft kiss at every scar. He stops when he reaches the area between her hips, moving to place her foot against his shoulder so he can kiss his way along the inside of her thigh instead. When he’s bent back down and has reached her hip once more he spends a moment there, lavishing her skin with his tongue. She shivers, her leg clamping down on his shoulder when he reaches a particularly sensitive area just above her panty line. 

He’s there for what feels like an eternity to her, teasing her just out of the way from what he knows she really wants. Her fingers find their way into his wavy brown hair, carding lightly through his tresses as he stops and gently rest his head against her inner thigh. His breath gives her goosebumps as he continues to lay there, cool air hitting the wet skin he had just left behind.

“I don’t know what I did to deserve someone like you.” She’s startled by his words, but doesn’t get to say much as he interrupts her when he rubs a slow circle around her clit with his thumb, a hearty moan coming out of her mouth instead, “Guys like me, we don’t get the girl. We get to watch as people like Morgan, or your friend Jack, gets the girl instead. Just when I was beginning to think I’d never find anyone, you came and completely took me by surprise. I think that our situation best applies to what Paulo Coelho said in The Alchemist ‘I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you’.” His thumb moves again, harder, “Out of all the universes that you could have ended up in, you ended up here, with me. I think that has to mean something and I want to spend the rest of my life trying to figure it out.”

She throws her head back when he languidly licks her through her panties, a deep moan crawling out of her chest and echoing around the room and being answered by a soft sigh from him. She struggles to look down at him as he quickly divests her of her last article of clothing, trying to catch his eyes so that she can maybe get a word in edge wise, but he never gives her that chance. Instead he buries his head between her thighs, his tongue dipping into her core then back out to run tight, concentric circles around her clit over and over again. He does this for a few minutes, tasting her, teasing her, before pulling her to the edge then stopping altogether. She’s nearly mad at him until he begins crawling up her body, kicking his pajama bottoms off along the way.

“I’m glad.”

Spencer gives her his confused face again, “I’m sorry?”

She smiles, leaning up to lavish at his neck while she spoke. “That it was this universe. That out of everywhere I could have been dropped on my last ride, I ended up here -with you.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

She pulls back to press her lips to his in a sweet kiss, trying hard to impress her feelings on him. They take their time with the kiss, slow mouth movements, subtle head tilts, long strokes of their tongues, but she feels a heat pool low in her belly at the taste of her in his mouth. An aching need to have him, right then, right now. 

She pulls back, panting softly as he slowly pushes into her heated center. He knows he doesn’t need to go this slow, she can take it. They’d had almost every kind of sex before, but this sedate love making was something completely new. 

Spencer was still in her for a moment, his mouth coming down to meet hers in soft kiss after soft kiss. She took the time to take in this moment, the feel of him in her, before rocking her hips up gently to meet his first languid thrust. She nearly tipped over the edge from the feel of him hitting every spot inside of her accompanied by the sound of his hearty groan. 

They kept with that pace for a while, meeting each other in the middle every time. Rose mewled as he changed up the game a little, pulling one of his hands between them and using his thumb to massage gently at her clit once more. Finally, she fell, her walls convulsing around him as she gripped at his wrist and the sheets. He rode it out slowly with her, bringing her down with a slow rocking of his hips. 

“I love you, Spence. God I love you.” She wound her fingers through his hair, bending his head down to kiss him hard as she rocked her pelvis up into him forcefully, “Now, fuck me.”

He moaned at the sound of her rarely used vulgar language before giving into her demands with a hard thrust. He leaned back, placing one hand on her bottom and using the other to throw her leg over his shoulder. She cried out at the change in position, the new angle giving him better access to her g-spot. Her head fell back as he picked up the pace, her back arching as she listened to the sounds he made. Then, with one final thrust, they came together. Spencer’s body convulsing lightly as he leaned down to wrap her up in his arms, both of them riding it out together. 

After they had caught their breathes he pulled out of her quickly, rolling off of her and on to his back and taking her with him, “I’m sorry.”

“About what, love?” She kissed his chest lightly, assuring him through touch, “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“No, about us having to spend our anniversary doing work. We’re out here, working on a murder case, when we should have been at home where I could spend actual time with you. Not that that wasn’t fantastic! It’s just,” he sighed, running a hand through his disheveled hair, “We still have a missing girl to find and I’m a little conflicted about how to feel.”

Rose smiled gently, “We’ll have other anniversaries, and you said that you wanted to spend the rest of your life trying to solve that problem with the universe. Besides, this one wasn’t so bad. I enjoyed everything just now, it’s a great break from the case.”

He looked like he was about to say something more, but they were startled by a hard fast knock at their door. She stared at him for a moment, pouting as he got up and pulled on his pants to go answer it.

Morgan came rushing in, voice in a frenzy, “Reid, Someone called in on the missing girl. They found her in a residential neighborhood – alive. We gotta go talk to her and-“.

Rose grew a furious shade of red, pulling the blankets around herself tighter, “Derek!”

“Oh sh- You guys, I’m sorry.” He flung a hand to his face, spinning around and feeling his way out of the room, “Look, I’ll just see you guys downstairs in five and we’ll forget this ever happened, alright? Great.”

He was gone before either of them could say another word, Reid closing the door almost as soon as he was through it, “Is nothing private anymore?”

She smiled, “Prentiss told me that you used to be a frequent room barger before I joined the time.”

“Well, yeah, but it was always about the case and none of them ever had a partner in their room I at least hesitated before walking. After looking at all the facts, Derek should have known.”

“He was clouded by the information on the case. Let’s just get dressed and head down there. We’ll figure it out.”

She was out of the bed by this point, placing a reassuring hand on his arm before beginning to walk away to grab some clothes from her suitcase. She was stopped, however, by a pair of lean arms around her waist.

“Happy Anniversary, Rose Tyler. I love you.”

“I love you, too, Spencer Reid.”


	2. Impressions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Man is he cute, but he can sure be rude.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter gives back story on Rose and takes place during season 2 episode 16 of criminal minds.

She shifted nervously from foot to foot outside of what would be her new boss’s office. It was exceptionally late and she didn’t actually start until tomorrow, but she wanted to make her introduction to him sooner rather than later. Everything she had worked so hard for finally came into fruition tomorrow and she was having a hard time grasping that concept.

Rose had been stranded here six years ago in the early months of 2000, no way home, no way back to the Doctor or any of her family. She had found Torchwood, told them her story, and they had welcomed her with open arms – by far the strangest thing any Torchwood she had run into had ever done. But, there was a Jack in this Universe and he believed in her. They’d put her through college, her taking on double the coursework to get her Ph.D. in Psychology and her B.A’s in Criminology and Engineering. 

Initially, she had wanted to continue working with Torchwood, but she had found that with every year her hopes that the Doctor would find her dwindled and it was time to let go. So she looked into career paths and it was actually Jack who had suggested it, helping her find something to do that would satisfy her need for travel and helping people. 

So, here she stood, outside the office of Aaron Hotchner, unit chief for Quantico’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, ready to introduce herself and begin her new life.

She began with a timid knock on the door before peering her head in, it was wide open, but that didn’t mean it was okay to just walk in, “Hello?”

“Yes? Come in.” A face with a head full of brown hair bobbed into her view from behind a desk. She wasn’t at all surprised by how he looked, brown eyes, stressed face, “How can I help you?”

She approached the desk, her short heels making a soft noise against the carpeted floor, “Um, yes, My name is Rose Tyler. I’m –“

“Oh yes, you’re supposed to be starting with us tomorrow, correct?” His hand was warm in hers as he let his face become a little more open since he now knew who stood in his office, “I’ve read your files. Your credentials are impressive. A Doctorate and two Bachelors at 24 with an IQ of 147.”

She felt herself blush lightly, “Ah, Thank you.”

Hotchner smiled lightly, sitting back at his desk, “Well, I look forward to working with. Go home and get some rest. We’ll have a big day tomorrow. We’ve taken on a new case and you’ll need to be as sharp as possible.”

Rose nodded her head, before backing towards the door, “Yes, sir. Thank you for this opportunity to join such an amazing-“ She stumbled as she tripped into something behind her, her arms flailing out to catch herself on anything, but finding she didn’t have to worry when another pair of hands was holding her in place. 

She spun quickly, the hands falling loose as she quickly scrambled for words, “’m so sorry! I should have been watching where I was going.”

“You’re British.” It was an obvious statement that had her crinkling her brow for a moment as she took in the man in front of her. He was tall, skinny, with a headful of jaw length brown hair. His shirt sleeves were rolled up, as if he had just been doing some serious work, and his body language suggested he was just as startled as her at what he had said, “I’m sorry, and that was completely rude of me. I’m not that great with social situations. I’m Doctor Spencer Reid, I work here at the BAU.”

She found herself letting her face relax as she offered her hand to him, “Doctor Rose Tyler, I’ll be working here starting tomorrow.”

His face was full of flagrant surprise as he looked over her shoulder to the unit leader, “We have a new member? Why didn’t you mention it to anyone?”

She let her hand drop, her brow raised in irritation, “I’m sure that he intended for me to meet you tomorrow. If you’ll excuse me, big day and I need the rest.” She nodded her head at the man and turned to do the same for Hotchner before taking her leave. 

She found that she was truly irritated as she walked out of the room, but she was used to people ignoring her. All-in-all she couldn’t hold it against him though, she’d read the files and she knew that Reid was a genius with and IQ of 187, an eidetic memory, and that he can read 20,000 words per minute. Which was impressive in her book, for a human. First impressions were everything and he had made a bad one.

“Wait! Doctor Tyler!” She turned around to look at the young man, not trying to hide her annoyance, “I’m truly sorry about that. I’m not very good with social cues-or social situations for that matter, as I said, so if I stepped on your toes in any way then I’m sorry.”

Dr. Reid’s face was open as he made this statement to her and she felt herself give in to his apology, “T’s alright. I’m used to being overlooked like that. I’m not usually so easily annoyed, I’ve just had a long flight – and day for that matter. We’ll get a fresh start tomorrow. Goodnight, Doctor Reid.” She offered her hand to him again, a smile stretching across her face as he took her hand in his own and shook it.

“Goodnight, Doctor Tyler.”

He was rude, but he was cute. So she would forgive him, this time.


	3. Captain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He doesn't seem like a bad guy, but it'd be better if he wasn't so damn handsome.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Season 2 episode 17

“So, um,” He’s clearing his throat softly, trying to get the courage to ask what’s on his mind.

“What’s up, boy wonder?” Morgan is staring him down with a smirk, his arm thrown behind Penelope’s shoulder, and everyone’s attention is unnerving him.

“Well, um,” clearing his throat again, “I was just going to ask what you all thought of Doctor Tyler.”

Spencer swallows hard, oh god they were going to figure him out.

“I think she’s fantastic. She’s absolutely hilarious and – and! She totally gets my references – I love it!” Garcia’s excitement is almost tangible and he feels himself give a smile at her energy. 

“You seen her smile yet man? That smile can make a man weak.” Morgan grabs his chest theatrically, throwing his head back lightly as Prentiss gives him a light slap to the arm before speaking herself.

“She’s almost as smart as you, Reid. Have you had time to read her file yet? On top of her Ph.D. in Psychology she has two B.A.’s. Two.” Her eyebrows are raised and she brought two of her fingers up to emphasize her point.

“I know about her degrees. It’s her as a person that interests me.” He’s got his hands on the table in front of him, moving them lightly as he speaks to help belay some of the nerve, “I think I offended her the entirety of this case and I’m not exactly sure what it is that I did.”

There’s a moment of silence that sets him on edge before the team breaks out in laughter.

“Spencer, you spent the entire case trying to outwit her. Every time she made a statement you always followed with a ‘yeah, but’, you never accepted any of her theories.” Morgan is staring him dead on and it makes him feel like a child being scolded, “You wanna talk about steppin’ on someone’s toes.” He tips his glass at him before taking a drink.

Spencer moves his hands to his lap, allowing genuine surprise to show on his face, “I hadn’t realized.”

Emily is snorting a laugh at him, “Of course you didn’t”

“I think you should apologize to her tomorrow. Buy her a coffee or something.” Garcia’s eyebrows are furrowed in worry and her voice is soft and he’s just sitting here hoping that he hasn’t absolutely screwed everything up between him and Doctor Tyler when Morgan is tipping his chin towards the door.

“Isn’t that her, what’s she doing here? I thought she was too tired to come out to the bar with us and celebrate.”

Spencer turns around in his chair at the table they’re at, his eyes immediately searching the room to find her and finding his breath caught in his throat when he does. He thought she had been pretty in her suit, but she was much more beautiful tonight. He took her in from head to toe, from her wavy blonde hair to her black shorts, three quarter sleeve blazer and long sleeve tan button up. What surprised him about the outfit was the heels, she seemed like someone who would wear more sensible shoes. Nonetheless, she was gorgeous and he couldn’t take his eyes off of her.

It seems like Garcia is about to get up and get her attention when they notice her smile wide at someone standing across from the doors. He feels his heart drop to his stomach when she moves towards a man in a suit, both of them leaning in to give each other hugs and a kiss on the cheek, “Well, I guess we don’t need to ask about a boyfriend.” The words are out of his mouth before he can even think of stopping them, though they are joyfully not looked at too hard.

“Nah, that’s not her boyfriend. See how they’re standing? They’re close, but they’ve never dated. Not to mention, if that was her boyfriend, she wouldn’t have greeted him with a kiss on just the cheek. Hell, I wouldn’t have greeted that man with just a kiss on the cheek.” Emily is letting out a low whistle when Rose and her partner seem to look their way.

Spencer is quick to turn around, afraid of what might happen if he catches her eyes. When he sees her coming up in his peripherals he turns his head slightly, nervously avoiding eye contact with her as she begins to speak, “Hi.” She laughs nervously, “This is a little awkward, um, and I didn’t mean to lie. I really was tired, but then my friend called and said he was in town and I couldn’t not see ‘im so.”

Garcia shushes her with a wave of her hand, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll forgive you if you introduce us to your handsome friend.”

He takes a moment to look at the man they’re speaking about a bit closer and finds that his face would be very pleasing to the eye, for some people. It was proportionate and he had a jawline that he was sure women found attractive.  As he decides to chance a look at Rose, he finds himself becoming more nervous when her eyes are on him also.

“No problem. This is my friend Captain Jack Harkness, he works for an IT company in Cardiff and is here on business.”

The man, Jack, is extending his hand to everyone at the table, kissing the back of Prentiss’s and Garcia’s while shaking his and Morgan’s firmly. When he speaks, he believes they’re all surprised that he’s American, “Ladies and Gents, the pleasure is all mine.”’

“You both are more than welcome to join us, we were just talking about what an asset you’ve been to our team, Doctor.”

He thinks he sees her flinch at the name, though he’s not sure what for and he doesn’t have a chance to ask when her friend is agreeing to Penelope’s offer. He’s grabbing chairs for him and Rose at a nearby table and setting them together as everyone shifts around to make room. Spencer doesn’t think he’s disliked anyone this much based off of first impressions ever, but he knows that it’s irrational and that she has everything to do with it. 

He gets up just as they sit down, swallowing hard and pushing his hands into his pockets before speaking, “I’m going to go grab a drink. Does anyone else want anything?” He almost forgets to add that last part, but manages to catch himself in time.

Everyone is shaking their heads ‘no’ as Rose gets up quickly, “I’ll go with you, I could use one. Jack?”

“I’m fine right here, Rosie. Grab me a Hendrik’s Gin and tonic, please. Thanks.” He shoots a wink at her as she turns to leave and Reid feels his fists ball up in his pockets. Emily may be right about the not dating, but it doesn’t seem to mean that the other man isn’t attracted to her.

Spencer follows after her quickly, “Your friend seems great.”

She looks back at him for a moment before speaking, “I wouldn’t be where I am without ‘im”

“How do you mean?” He tilts his head at her in confusion as he comes to stand beside her. 

“He took me in when I was young and had no place to go, got me on the right track. He’s like a brother to me.”

He feels a little of the jealousy ebb away with this fact and is about to speak when she starts up again.

“Do you not like me?”

He’s taken aback by the absurdity of the question and finds himself stuttering out an almost immediate answer, “N-no! Quite the opposite, I like you a lot. You’re very smart and you handled the case brilliantly.”

She’s turned towards him now and he’s intimidated by her dark eyes, “Then why did you spend all day just - just talking over me and contradicting everything I had to say?”

His hands are out of his pockets and he’s waving them in front of him in a defensive manner that he wishes he could stop, “I didn’t mean to, honest. I actually hadn’t realized I’d done anything until the team brought it up. So, I’m sorry. I’m just-“ he hesitates, biting at his lip nervously, “I’m just used to being the smartest person in the room, is all.”

He watches as she softens visibly, a smile fighting its way onto her face as she diverts her eyes, “You think I’m smart?”

He smiles a little himself, raising a hand to scratch nervously at the back of his head, “Yeah, of course.”

Their drinks are in front of him before he can say anything else and he finds himself paying for all of them quickly, trying to maybe buy back a little bit of her good graces. 

As they’re walking back to the table, she nudges him lightly with her shoulder and he sways a little, “Thank you.”

He looks at her, his breath catching at how soft her eyes are.

“For the drinks and the compliment.”

He’s a mess by the time they get back to the table, but he’s oddly okay with that.


	4. Gideon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stupid facts always lighten the mood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based off of season 2 episode 23 of Criminal Minds

“There’s no way this was ‘im. Look at the body, don’t you recognize anything here?” She’s gesturing to the torso, trying to get them to move and think quicker. They were on borrowed time as it was and them standing around talking wasn’t making it better, wasn’t solving the problem.

He’s at her side in an instant and, even though they’ve only been together a few months, his voice and nearness comfort her.

“Evisceration of the torso, removal of various organs. The guy’s clearly a sexually sadistic psychopath.” His hands are deep in his pockets and as much as she wants to hold them she restrains herself, crossing her arms and biting at one of her nails instead. 

“He’s well-versed with a scalpel. He’s done this before. We need to at least get photos.” Prentiss is looking between them all and her voice is strong, assured. She’s correct and she knows it, she can tell by the cuts, no hesitation. 

“Rose, your cell phone. Get as many as you can, as quickly as you can and get them to Garcia.” She nods her head quickly dropping her hands so she can dip into her pocket and pull out her new smart phone. The pictures would come out the best on hers, she knew that, but she didn’t want to look at the poor woman any longer than she had to.

Rose set out to take the pictures quickly. Pictures of the body, the wounds, the room. She sent the photos to Penelope’s computer before calling her quickly.

She’s biting at her fingers again by the time that Garcia picks up, her nerves still on edge, “Garcia, I need you at your computer now.”

“I’m almost there. Hotch sent me a text. Oh, Rosie,” There’s a long sigh after her name, as if she’s done something wrong, “It’s Friday night. You remember that cute guy from counterterrorism, right? The one YOU told me to go for? Three cocktails in, I am looking at second base, so this better be really good.” A menacing tone in her voice causes Rose to emit some nervous laughter, but she keeps it in check.

“We’re universes away from good, darling.”

The line is dead air for a moment before she hears her quite voice come through the line, “Where are you?”

“We’re in Gideon’s’ apartment.”

She can hear the others talking as Penelope works, going through the apartment piece by piece, but it’s always his voice she listens for the most, “He took the rib bones as gifts to give to Jane.”

She feels bile start to rise in her throat and she knows that she has to get out of that apartment, moving swiftly through the door, “Call someone when you have something. I’ve got to go.” 

Her body’s carrying her out the door and down the stairs before she even has time to think about it, but she can feel someone hot on her heels and she flicks her head back for a moment to catch JJ right there with her.

“Rose, are you okay?” She’s caught up to her, hand grabbing her arm reassuringly as they walk.

She doesn’t speak until they get to the street, her lungs too constricted to find words, “I’m sorry. She was just so – so cut up. There was so much blood.” She bends over, hands on her knees as she pulls in air through her nose and breathes it out through her mouth. Just like her mum taught her when she was a kid.

“They still get to me too, sometimes.” She’s rubbing soothing circles on her back, but stops when the rest of the team joins them.

“Frank had to have come out the same way down this street. If they saw Gideon, they saw Frank.” Morgan is coming from across the street, Prentiss and Reid from opposite ends of the sidewalk. They must have tried different exits from the building.

“Well, we know Frank will do whatever it takes to blend in, to not stand out. “ Prentiss is calm as she profiles the man, her voice even as she speaks.

Morgan is shaking his head, crossing his arms, “Well, to avoid attracting attention he would have simply walked calmly out of that crime scene”

When Spencer reaches her, she feels like she can breathe better. Her heart calming, body less on edge as he speaks, even with the morbidity of it, “The evisceration of Sarah, though, means he would have been soaked in her blood.”

“No,” Her voice is strong when she finally gets a chance to speak, “He had access to Gideon’s closet. Could’ve easily cleaned up, changed clothes, and leisurely walked out of there.”

“Yet he left no trace of evidence at the crime scene.” Morgan doesn’t sound so sure of her analysis, but they had nothing better to go on at that point.

“Gideon said he dumped it en route.” He’s approaching with a bag, but she’s focused on his words.

“You spoke with ‘im? Where is he?”

“Safe.” He looks between everyone pointedly. 

“Well, that’s all the proof we need, right? We can turn this over to the M.P.D. now.”

Rose is shaking her head, about to iterate why that’s a bad idea, but Hotch speaks first, “By the time this comes back from the lab, Frank’s long gone.”

“If the cops find out we’re hiding evidence and a material witness from them-“ He doesn’t even let Derek finish his sentence.

“We’re not hiding evidence. We’ll give this to forensics, let them search DNA. We’ll look for Frank.”

 The sound of something rolling towards her has her turning her head, watching as a little boy kicks up his skateboard and begins to speak to them, “Agent Morgan? They say beauty can cover a multitude of sins. While underneath it all we all look exactly the same.”

Morgan is spinning around, looking in every direction, his brow furrowed angrily as he talks, “That’s Frank. He said that to me in the diner.”

“Give me Jane or I kill them all.”

“He thinks we have Jane. We need to find her, fast.”

She stops focusing on the kid and instead looks around her, speaking over him as he begins to talk again, “He’s here watching us, isn’t he?”

“Yeah.” Spencer’s reply has her on edge and sets her into motion.

“’M going back to the station, gonna look through what Garcia has left us. JJ, you coming?”

She nods her head, walking with Rose to the SUV quickly. They were both done with this place.

-x-x-x-

Garcia has left slews of pictures on the table, but little to go with it besides something circled in red on one of the photographs. She picks it up off the table quickly, putting it between her and JJ so they can get a good look at it.

“It looks like a journal, but the first page has been ripped out. Look.” Rose points to the torn area, her finger running along the numbers, “Call them. They might know what it means.”

JJ leans over, dialing someone on the Comm’s. When Prentiss’s voice answers she lets JJ start the conversation, “Garcia left us a picture of a black notebook? The page is torn out and it’s numbered.”

“It’s definitely Gideon’s handwriting though.” She’s pacing the room now, trying to walk off some of the adrenaline. 

It quiet for a moment, then a sigh and an answer, “It’s his murder book.”

Rose stops her pacing her voice soft as she speaks, “Murder book?”

“No, it’s not what you think. He keeps a list of all the people he saved at the beginning of this book. It reminds him of why he does what he does.” Hotchner is quick to soothe her, but she’s still on edge. None of this is looking good.

“It has their names, dates, personal details. Frank has all that now.” Spencer’s voice sounds further away, but it’s picked up and she understands the implications of what he’s saying.

“JJ and I will put together a list. We’ll call them and warn them as quickly as possible.” She hangs up without a goodbye, there’s no time for that now.

She and Jennifer move like water together, each of them searching for what they can and placing pictures on the board when they get the nearest possible victims. Her hands are sweaty and she starts shaking as soon as she has to pin a picture of a child up.

“He won’t hurt her. She’s not his type.” His voice startles her, having thought that she was alone since JJ had gone to get coffee for them.

Rose spins around quickly, biting her lip, “He’s taken children before,”

His hands are warm on her arms, his grip soft as he rubs gentle circles with his thumbs, “But he never hurt them.” He pulls her in for a hug that she hadn’t realized she’s needed until he’d given it.

Her body is tense against his for a moment before she lets herself relax and hold him back, “You’re gonna get us in trouble.”

His lips are on her head for a second, a quick kiss to her crown before he releases her, “Let’s get back to work.”

By the next morning things have gone from bad to worse. They’d called the nearest woman, but they were too late and now they were standing at another crime scene. It was the note, their words. She knew that he would go for the little girl. She’d told him, it’s what he’d done before. Anything for his Jane.

Her nails are bitten raw as she tunes back into the conversation with a few words of her own, “He fell in love with her. His Jane, the one he couldn’t kill.”

She can feel everyone’s eyes on her before she even turns to look at them, “He has the little girl.”

“Rose already found her, she pinned her on the board. Tracey Belle.” JJ’s voice is strong over the phone and she’s so angry for not pushing the matter with the girl.

It’s not long after that they found out that she was right, the girl was gone, but they knew where he would be next. He told them, after all. A memo at the last victim’s house – 7am, Union Station.

Rose goes to the station, letting Spencer and JJ head to the apartment that Gideon and Garcia had found for Frank’s mother. She’s beside Morgan the whole time, gun in hand and aimed to kill. 

Jane is there and she remembers JJ telling her that she asked if it was wrong of her to love Frank, wrong of her to love a murderer. Standing here, watching him call for her, it’s obvious that she’s a replacement for a mother he couldn’t stand to lose. Jane can’t see it though, can’t see through her own psychosis to have any qualms with his.

She’s ready to shoot when they’re moving, but the chance never comes as she’s suddenly pulled into Morgan’s chest. Her eyes might not have seen, but she could still hear. She heard it all. The bones crunching. The sound of it is ringing in her ears and she can feel a panic attack coming on. What if this had happened when she had fell through the void? A violent death as she was pulled feet first into nothing.

Rose pulls out of the attack to Morgan in her face and Spencer in her ear. He’s walked her to the end of the platform, farthest away from the scene.

“Rose? Are you okay? Is she okay?”

“Rose, you’re having a panic attack. Listen to my voice, okay? I’m right here.”

Her eyes focus sharply on Derek’s face, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. It was the sound. The sound it-“

“Shh, shh, shh, it’s okay. You don’t have to explain it to me. Let’s just get you out of here, alright?”

-x-x-x-

They took her straight home from the crime scene and she’s not surprised when Spencer shows up at her door, fraught with worry and frantic for an explanation. 

She explained it to him over the phone, but she supposed that just saying ‘panic attack’ wasn’t going to be a good enough explanation for him. He wanted the why of it. So, she leads him to the couch, arms crossed as she tries to pull her zip-up hoodie further around herself. She hasn’t stopped shivering since the station.

“What happened?”

Rose hesitates at first, trying to think of the best way to describe it to him without sounding completely insane. She would have to lie a little, “When I was nineteen, before I lived with Jack. I traveled with a friend for a while and there was an accident. I almost died. In fact, I should have died. But, I lived. The noise, it just reminded me of that. The sound of their bodies – they-“ She stops, her eyes watering.

He has her in his arms before the first hiccup falls out of her mouth, one hand on her head the other on her back trying to rub soothing circles. He wasn’t very good at this, but he tried and that’s what mattered, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It wasn’t important. It’s the past.”

“You say that about everything.”

“Because it’s true.” She wraps her arms around him, her hands balling up around his polka dot dress shirt, “I’m sorry.”

His voice is muffled by her hair as he speaks, “You don’t have to apologize to me.”

She pulls back, her head angling up towards his and catching his mouth in a hard kiss. He’s alarmed, initially, trying to pull back, “Rose.”

“Stop. I need this, okay. Just please.” 

There’s silence for a moment before he’s kissing her, his arms still wound around her body, fingers woven into her hair as he devours her mouth with his.

She’s manages to work her hands between their chests, her fingers pulling on his tie and undoing the knot. She loves the sound it makes as it slides against the material of his shirt, her mouth opening in a soft sigh that he uses to his advantage to tangle his tongue with her own.

They’d never made it far before, the relationship a new territory for both of them. She hadn’t honestly dated anyone since Mickey and it had been years since then. Now, she was just hoping that she could get it right and not scare him away.

She’s deftly undoing the buttons of his shirt as his hand slides up under the hem of her hoodie. Her mouth leaves his for a moment, kissing his jaw and his neck. She trails her teeth and tongue along the skin, blowing cool air over the wet patches.

“Are – are you not wearing a shirt under this?” 

Her hands are sliding into his open top, lips making a gentle pop as she pulls away from his neck, “No.”

She expects him to retreat, but is surprised by the ferocity of his mouth on hers, his hands fumbling with the zipper of her hoodie. She uses this time to push his shirt off his shoulder and lets her hands wander over his bare chest.

When Spencer finally manages to get the zipper down she moves to take it off, hissing as the cold air hits her chest. He removes his lips from hers to look at her full-on. She’s embarrassed for a moment, but doesn’t have much time to think on it when one of his hands comes up to cover a breast, his thumb rolling over the already beaded nipple and causing her to moan.

“Rose, I haven’t done anything like this. I-“

“Graduated High school when you were 12, I know. I haven’t done anything like this for a long time. We can go slowly, okay? I think we’d both like that.” She smiles, moving up to kiss him as he wraps his free arm around her.

She takes this chance to run a hand up his leg tentatively, knee to thigh. She moves her hand gently over him through his pants, heat pooling in her abdomen at how hard he is for her. His soft moan against her mouth has her mind reeling, her tongue tangling with his passionately. 

She’s on him in a moment, crawling into his lap while trying not to break contact with him. She tests the water, rolls her hips gently, and is mind blown by the sensation it causes. 

Spencer is breaking the kiss in an instant to groan, his hand tight on her breast as the other rests just at the top of her shorts. She rolls again and he pants and she knows that she’s done for, her hands moving down to his belt buckle to undo it and make quick work of his button and zip.

There’s a moment, then, where they just breathe together and she feels that if she could freeze one moment in time, just capture it, it would be this moment. After a minute, she begins to move, her hand dipping slowly below his waist band. She lets her fingers brush gently across the tip, pre-come coating her fingertips. She’s aroused by his shuddering reaction, the light twitch in his abdomen.

“You can tell me if you want to stop.” She can feel his breath against her mouth as she waits to hear his answer, her body vibrating with anticipation. 

Spencer’s breath is barely a whisper when he answers her, “No.”

There’s a second of hesitation before he’s kissing her again, his hand dipping further down the back of her shorts to get a grip on her. She moves the instant he does, her hand gripping him lightly and her thumb running gently over his head. His answering moan is a sound that she wants to hear again and again and she finds herself responding in kind when he kneads at her breast.

She catches his bottom lip between her teeth, nipping softly before sucking lightly. She moves her hand this time, stroking him gently. His skin is like velvet under her hand and she’s genuinely surprised at the size of him when she considers his scrawny stature.

He lets his head fall back against the couch, her mouth following him so that she can take advantage of his exposed neck. She strokes him slowly as she suckles at his skin, her teeth grazing him occasionally. His hips are moving up to meet her motion and she moans softly when his thigh rubs her clit. 

Rose startles slightly when his hand moves from her chest and down her body, his fingertips splayed against her skin and dragging slowly down towards the elastic band of her shorts. She squeezes him gently as his fingers dip under the fabric, a low keening noise falling from her lips when he brushes her through the dampness of her underwear. 

She picks up the pace of her hand when he finally moves his into her panties, one of his fingers running gently down her folds. He moves it in circles over her clit and she can’t help the shuddering moan that comes stumbling from somewhere in her throat and stuttering out of her mouth. She squeezes him harder and strokes him faster for want of him, her head spinning when he finally dips a finger into her dripping core. 

She’s a mess of moans and incoherent words as he moves to match her speed, his finger pumping in and out as his thumb brushes her clit over and over again. The orgasm that washes over her moments later wipes her mind clean, her eyes pinched shut and a shudder running through her body. 

His hands move to grip her hips as he rocks up into her fist a few more times before finding his release in her hand, his body quivering from the sensation.  Her mouth is dry and her chest is constricting with a familiar emotion as he kisses her softly through his orgasm. She’s about to say something extremely stupid when he leans his head against her shoulder and beats her to it, “Did you know that if a female ferret doesn’t mate while she’s in heat she can die?”

Rose is quiet for a moment before she throws her head back to laugh, her voice echoing around her apartment. Only Spencer Reid would spout off a ridiculous fact after getting laid. 


	5. Doctors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She was okay with confrontations, but this was one she wanted to avoid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place around season 3 episode 8 of criminal minds and season 5 episode 13 of Doctor Who.

She found that the end of a case was always the most tedious. Having to go through all the case information again, put in all the facts, and close it out, it was a nightmare all its own. However, it did help that Spencer had stayed behind to bear the load with her.

They’d been dating for just over a year and had just recently moved in together. The team still didn’t know, but that didn’t bother either of them much of the time. It was nice to have something that belonged to them. 

She kept shooting him glances from where she was across the table, her lashes low as she bit back a smile.

“I can feel you staring at me.” He’s smiling too, though his eyes haven’t moved from the papers in front of him. She wants to get up and run her hands through his hair, demand that he take her on the desk, but she settles for sliding her foot along his leg under the table.

She can tell that he’s about to say something because he looks up, but his eyes end up trailing past her shoulder, his smile dying on his lips as he drops his pen and slowly moves a hand to his hip, “How did you get in here? This office is closed.”

She spins in her chair, case files momentarily forgotten. There’s a man standing in the doorway, tweed suit, bowtie, mousy brown hair. He hasn’t said a word yet, but his eyes are locked on hers so she speaks first, “How did-“

“I stepped through a crack in a little girl’s wall.”

She catches Spencer in her peripherals, but can’t pull her eyes from the oddly familiar man. She stands from her chair slowly, taking a hesitant step towards him, “You-“

“Rose, wait-“ her boyfriends’ fingers are brushing her arm and she shrugs him off.

“It’s funny, you step through a crack in a little girl’s wall and you think ‘I’m being erased from all of time and space’ when really you just get dropped into a parallel world. That’s where I am, correct? The only other option is that I have truly died and the universe is playing one final cosmic joke.”

She’s in front of him before he finally shuts his gob, her eyes running over his entire face, “Doctor?”

As he starts to nod his head he’s met with a vicious slap to the face, stumbling to the side as his hands tumble out of his pockets. He’s raised a hand to cover his cheek, a startled noise coming from his mouth as she speaks, “You have no right!”

“Rose?” Spencer has stepped closer and she feels embarrassment swell in her chest. She’d told him about the Doctor, but never much. He knew that she traveled with him for a while and that they were somehow separated, but he had no substantial details. How could she tell him? His analytical mind would insist that she was insane if she tried to even begin to explain the adventures she’d been on with the man in front of her, a man who was supposed to be entire universes away.

“Oh that was a good one! Been slapped many times in my thousand years, but there’s never a slap quite like a Tyler slap.”

“I waited for you. Six years I waited and you never came for me. You-“

“Don’t cry, please don’t cry.” His hand is reaching for her, but she shrinks back, “You fell through the void, Rose. I tried, I burnt up a sun trying to find you.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m finding myself a little lost here.”

She’s shocked at how close Spencer’s voice is, spinning around to meet his eyes, “I think I need to explain myself. I’m sorry, this is – This is the Doctor.”

There’s a heavy silence in the air as he’s looking over her shoulder to stare at the other man, to profile him.

“Right, yes, sorry, how rude of me! And you are?” She can picture the Doctors face, knows he’s excited to be meeting someone new, but this is a confrontation she’d rather avoid.

“Dr. Spencer Reid, Rose’s boyfriend.”

More silence in the room as the two size each other up before the Doctor is speaking again, “Ah, of course. I suppose it has been a long time.”

“Did you say something about a parallel world a moment ago?” 

“Yes! There’re millions of them out there. Strange though that I’d end up in this specific one. I think it’s because Rose here is the only one in all of time and space who remembered me. Won’t be long before I have to get back to the old girl though, I’ve got an event that can’t be missed. “

“She’s here? The TARDIS is here?” Rose spins around, blonde hair whipping her face.

“Of course, can’t go anywhere without her. The only two of our kind in existence, I could never leave her behind.”

“I suppose not.”

“We could go you know? Take a spin around the universe. I’ve got the time.” He’s adjusting his bowtie, running a hand through his hair.

“Yes.” There’s no hesitation in her answer, “Spencer gets to come though.”

The Doctor is already walking away, moving towards where she supposes the TARDIS is, but she’s waiting for his answer. She can’t leave him behind, she has to show him so he’ll understand. Then she can tell him everything, all the adventures, everything she’s ever wanted to tell him, “Couples in the TARDIS, seems to be the trend.”

Her smile is wide as she spins to grab her boyfriend’s hand, she can tell he’s confused, can see it in his face and the set of his shoulders, “You have to trust me. I’ll explain all of this once we get there.”

She doesn’t wait for an answer this time, pulling him along behind her as they make their way away from the bull pen and out the doors to where the TARDIS is parked. She’s settled there in all her glory, a beautiful blue box filling up the hall, completely untouched by time. 

“How did that get in here?”

She ignores his question, instead pulling him through the doors with her as she follows behind the Doctor. She releases her hold on him once they’re inside, spinning slowly to take in the entire room.

“Now, I’m sure you’re American friend here has some questions. Fire away, heard it all-“

“Boyfriend. And it’s smaller on the outside. Does this police box house an entirely different dimension?”

“Well, I can honestly say I’ve never heard that one before, but yes.” The Doctor is hesitant, she can tell by his slowed speech. He doesn’t trust Spencer, doesn’t understand how he could properly digest something like this. 

“He has an IQ of 187 and two doctorates. He’s very smart, maybe smarter than you.”

She can tell by the face he’s making that she’s offended him. He doesn’t answer her though, instead moving around the center column, pulling at levers and pushing buttons. He’s going to prove a point instead.

“Rose?” Spencer’s hand is on her arm, dragging her around to face him, “I think you have a lot to tell me.”

“Yes, right.”

She sits him down at the bottom of the new stairs, folding his larger hand between her two smaller ones as she tells him the story of a girl who grew up on an estate and dreamed of something more. She tells him about ghosts with Dickens, the Doctor changing his face, she tells him about the Cybermen and the Daleks, and she finally tells him about the day she thought she died. She tries not to have a panic attack as she explains the sounds, the crushing feeling of falling through the void and being dropped on an entirely different Earth and into the past by 5 years.

“You weren’t born on our Earth? But you have a birth certificate, green cards, everything.”

“They’re fake. Torchwood, an institute in Cardiff where Jack works, helped me build a new identity”

He’s silent for a while, processing the information as he turns her hands over in his own. She feels like she can’t breathe until he answers, “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“Would you have believed her? Aliens, spaceships, it’s all a bit hard to swallow I imagine.”

Rose is startled at how close the Doctor is, sitting in a jump seat at the top of the stairs with his eyes turned towards the ceiling. He’s on his feet in an instant though, running down the steps and dashing towards the door, but hesitating when he’s at the bottom, “By the way, how’s the new face?”

She furrows her brows and tries not to laugh at the absurdity of the situation, “Quite the chin this time, but still not ginger.”

He frowns and spins, stomping as he closes the gap between himself and the TARDIS’s front doors, “That’s still a techy subject. Anyways, aren’t you wondering what’s on the other side of these doors?”

She gets up, offering a hand to Spencer as she stands, “Do you want to see?”

He’s hesitant at first, but he ultimately lets her pull him up. She grips his hand tightly, winding their fingers together as she leads them to what awaits. She’s in awe as the Doctor opens the doors, a chill running up her body at the drop in temperature, “Woman Wept?”

“Still here, even in this universe.”

“How?” Spencer has dropped her hand, moving out to look at the snap froze waves, “It’s amazing.”

“The TARDIS, Time and Relative Dimension in Space. She’s a spaceship. Can travel anywhere in any time.” The Doctor is adjusting his bow-tie, as if he’s done something brilliant, leaning against the doors and watching.

Rose slowly approaches Spencer, her hand finding his once again so they can stare at the waves together, “This is the life I lived. It wasn’t always this safe, sometimes I almost died, but it was beautiful and fantastic. You understand, right? Why I couldn’t tell you until now?”

His eyes are soft when he looks at her, “Yes. He’s right, I wouldn’t have believed you, not without the evidence.”

She wraps him in her arms then, thrilled when he responds in kind and graces her with a kiss to the crown of her head.

“Yes. Well, this is all well and good, but – Wouldn’t you like a bit of adventure?”

And that’s what he does, he takes them on an adventure. They run through ancient Egypt and stand awe struck at the fires of Pompeii, they go to the end of the universe and stop the toppling of an entire civilization from an invading race, but he still has to take them home in the end. All books have a final chapter and all adventures come to an end.

She’s worn out by the time he takes them back to the BAU, stepping out of the TARDIS with a suitcase full of her belongings in one hand and her lovers fingers wound through the other. She’s stricken when the Doctor pulls her in for a hug, whispers gentle words into the top of her head about how grand their adventures were, but that it was time they both start new ones.

“This new doctor of yours, he’s much better than the last few. Run with him and never look back, alright?”

She feels herself sob, her fingers digging into his jacket and scratching at her palms, “I wouldn’t change it for the world. Any of it. Thank you.”

She cries as he places his face against her hair, inhaling softly and placing a gentle kiss between her strands, “You could come with me, you know? The other universe could always use a Rose Tyler. Rickey the idiot would be happy to see you again.”

Taking a few steps back, she rubs at her eyes, “I can’t do that. I’ve made a life for myself here. I’ve got my Doctorate, the BAU, and – and Spencer, I love ‘im. I can’t go. I’m sorry. “

The Doctors hands are in his pockets, head down as he shuffles from one foot to the other, “I figured you’d say that. So, I have this for you.” He pulls his hand from his endless pocket and places a sonic screwdriver in her hand, wrapping her fingers around it tightly, “If you ever get yourself in a pinch, just don’t forget that it doesn’t do wood.”

She laughs lightly, pressing the button and staring at the blue light, “This is your old one, yeah? Thank you.”

He steps back, hand in his pockets again as he walks through the doors of the TARDIS and out of her life, “Goodbye, Rose Tyler. Have a wonderful life, be fantastic in everything you do.”

She’s sobbing by the time the TARDIS fades out of view, the sonic clutched to her chest as she tries to hold onto the last vestiges of a man that for so long consumed her world. She can hear footsteps behind her, but she doesn’t have to turn to know who it is.

“He talked to me while you went and packed your stuff. He really cared for you, Rose. I’m – I’m glad though, that you stayed. Because there’s something really important that I’ve been meaning to tell you and it just hasn’t been the right time or the right place, but he made me realize that you don’t need that. If I spend all my time waiting for the perfect moment or thinking that it never needs to be said because you already know then – well, I might never say it.” His hand is in hers, dragging her around to look at him. She keeps her eyes shut until she feels a thumb brush her cheek, his free hand resting along her jaw and chin. When she finally blinks them open through the tears, she wants to cry more at all the emotion in his face, at the overpowering amount of adoration in his eyes, “I love you, Rose. I love you so much that when I get done with a case all I want to do is be with you. You’re smile is brighter than any of those stars we saw and I can’t go but ten minutes without having to look at you because I never want to forget how beautiful you are. I love lying in bed and listening as you name the constellations through our skylight and I love listening to you sing in the shower. You are everything that I could have ever hoped for and I can’t imagine having a life without you. I live everyday trying to make you proud to call me yours, just as I have been proud to call you mine.”

She’s a mess as she crashes her mouth against his, her arms flying around his shoulders so she can pull him further into her. She’s whispering ‘I love you’ over and over against his lips as he draws her closer and shushes her with simple movements of his mouth against hers.  

The day hadn’t gone as well as they had expected, but it had ended better than any day they’d had before and she could live with that. The paperwork would have to wait until tomorrow, they had bigger plans for tonight.


	6. Fights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They hardly ever fought and they'd definitely never fought this bad

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place a few weeks before the last one.

“I just don’t see the rationality behind us keeping your copies. My books are in much better condition, it makes sense to keep mine.”

She wants to hit him, she really does. She restrains herself though, arms tight across her chest as they stare at the boxes on the floor between them. It was their first day in their new flat and they were already fighting, “While yours may be in ‘perfect’ condition, mine are well worn because they’re well loved. I have an attachment to my books, they mean something to me. I can’t just toss them out, Spencer.”

His arms are crossed now too and she knows it’s because he’s thinking of a strategy and baring down for an argument. They almost never fought, but when they did it wasn’t the drag out fights she used to have with the Doctor, oh no, these fights were quiet and analytical. It was like a chess game, each of them planning their move before they made it and brooding in the silence between turns as they thought of their next actions. 

“Mine have emotional value as well, lots of these are my mothers and you know that. Besides, most of mine are first editions. I can’t just throw those out, Rose.”

“I wasn’t insinuating that we throw them out. You could sell them.”

He’s laughing now, a light ‘ohoho’ as he uncrosses his arms, “Sell them? You’re kidding, right?”

“You’re a doctor, you figure it out.” 

His eyebrows are high as he stares at her. She’s giving him her ‘try me’ look and she’s not anywhere near backing down from this when both of their phones go off. They had a case, but this was far from over.

They spent much of their time while working throwing snarky remarks back and forth at each other, thinly veiled insults being shot between deductions that they know is probably confusing everyone. They still hadn’t told people they were dating and it wasn’t that they had been trying to hide it, it just hadn’t come up.

“There’s no sense in having two of everything. Did you guys see this glass right here? She clearly left in a hurry.”

“Says the guy with duplicate sweaters. What about this one? This receipt shows she was at the same restaurant as the last vic on the same day of the week.”

“Oh, and owning two pairs of the same kind of shoe is any different? I’m gonna go check out the first victims apartment with Prentiss, see what I can learn from there.”

“They. Were. Comfortable. While you do that I’m gonna head with Morgan to the last crime scene, there might be something important that local PD missed.”

“Great.”

“Great.” 

She’s pushing past Spencer down the stairs of the plane and she doesn’t miss Morgan’s remark before they make it out the door, “Does anyone else think something weird is going on?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen them fight before. They normally get along pretty well. Stressful week?”

“You can say that again.”

The case doesn’t take them more than a day to solve, all of them back at the BAU around 1am then next day. Everyone was exhausted from the massive amount of foot work, but were glad that the suspect had made such a glaring error when he abducted the last girl, leaving evidence at the scene of the crime. She could almost laugh at how much of a joke the killer had been, but she was too tired and too sad. It had been a long day and she never fought with him this long. An hour in and they were both calling mercy, hugging it out instead. They had clearly started something that wasn’t going to end that easily.

She’s mad all over again by the time they make it home, throwing her purse and keys on the couch as she kicks of her heels, satisfied when it pegs one of his boxes. He’d walked ahead of her the entire way to the subway and stood nearly two feet away from her the entire time. She’d quickened her pace when they’d gotten to their stop, fighting with him to get the door open at their apartment. 

“Oh! I could just strangle you.”

“Says the woman who can’t open a jam jar by herself.”

She spins on him, eyebrows high on her head as she laughs at him dramatically, “Yeah? Cause that’s clearly a testimony to my strength! A six year old girl could take you.” 

His responding laugh is more of a scoff as if he can’t believe the audacity of her words. She doesn’t wait for his next speech as she goes over and starts picking up his books and throwing them on the floor in an exaggerated fashion. She looks from him to the books as she does so, picking them up one by one and relishing in the smack they make as they hit the wood floors.

“Stop.”

She tilts her head at him, “Make me.”

She’s hardly startled when he cuts across the room and crashes his mouth against her own, their teeth clashing together as he presses her tightly to his chest. She wants to push him away but finds herself fisting her hands in his hair instead, pulling roughly at the chestnut tresses. He’s hissing through his teeth at her when she pulls his head back to bite at his neck, her tongue lavishing the harsh nips like a balm to soothe the ache. 

He’s guiding her backwards, trying not to trip over the mess she’s made with all of his books. She hops up when her bum hits the dining room table, pulling him between her legs as he rips open here snap button down blouse. 

He’s kissing her neck and collar bone hotly, his hands palming roughly at her exposed breasts as she works at his belt and trousers as quickly as she can, “You’re such an ass.”

He bites the top of her breast harshly and she hisses, pulling him closer when he ghosts his tongue over the mark she knows he’s left, “At least I wasn’t throwing a tantrum like a child.”

She leans back and shimmies out of her panties while he drops his pants, “Shut up and fuck me.”

He doesn’t hesitate, pushing her skirt up her legs and slamming into her. He keeps up a rough pace that has her panting and keening with every stroke. He only slows down once to put one of her legs over his shoulder and to get a hand between them so he can circle a thumb over her clit. He’s relentless and she’s nearly sobbing when she climaxes, her hands clawing at the table when she feels his orgasm break too.

They’re both quiet for a while, her hands in his hair from where he’s collapsed against her when he pulled out. She cards her finger through the sweaty strands and feels Goosebumps raise on her arm from his breath ghosting across her nipple. Their pants are filling the room and he’s laying gentle kisses across her sternum when she starts to speak, “We’ve never had angry sex before.”

“I think I like the sex, but I don’t like the fighting. That was quite possibly the roughest day I’ve had in a while. Did you go with Morgan to get back at me?”

She laughs, her hands stilling on his head, “You used Prentiss to get back at me. Was only fair.”

“You know this apartment is nearly 2000 square feet. We could probably keep both sets of books. They’re clearly of sentimental value to each of us.”

“You’re right. How about we go have sex in our new bed and we can pick them up on the morning?”

“I like that word.”

“What word? Sex?”

“No. Our. Our bed, our apartment, the rest of our lives.”


	7. Galas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boy did he hate parties, but she was beginning to change his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place pretty early into their relationship. Sometime after Season 2 episode 18 (their first date) and before Season 2 episode 23 (five months into their relationship).

“Alright you guys, I hate this just as much as you do, but I am expecting to see every single one of you tonight at this Gala. We’ve already received a lot of budget cuts lately and they want to make sure that their money is going to the right places. If one of you doesn’t show, it reflects badly on all of us.”

“It’s a fundraiser, Hotch.”

“A fundraiser to help support our cost, Morgan.”

Spencer’s listening half-heartedly, instead picking at the sleeves of his sweater and mostly staring at Rose. They’d been on a few dates now and he had assumed they’d gone well because she was still talking to him and they’d already planned their next one, but you could never be too sure in situations like this. 

He was wondering, absent-mindedly, about what she would be wearing tonight. He had a hard time picturing her in something formal when she spent most of her time in slacks or jeans. It was easy for men, you put on a nice suit and you didn’t look much different, but women had a particular way of transforming themselves that always fascinated him.

He knew that it would be silly to ask her to be his date for the night, they weren’t really putting their relationship out to the world, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to ask her for a dance or two. He just had to avoid stepping on her toes.

“Okay everyone, 7pm sharp at the Sequoia restaurant in DC. Reid, Tyler, Morgan is gonna give you a ride.”

“That means you better be ready within the next hour, Rose.”

She rolls her eyes at him from across the table and he barely stifles a laugh when she responds with a ‘yeah, mum’.

They both hang up their phones and he’s startled when she slumps against the table, “I don’t want to go rub elbows with a bunch of bureaucrats.”

He smiles lightly, reaching a thin hand across the table to lay it gently atop hers, “Neither do I, but at least we’ll be there with each other, yeah?”

When she lifts her head up to smile at him shyly he feels his heart stutter in his chest and he pulls his hand back to try and regain some of his composure. He stands up from the table slowly, adjusting his sweater, “Right, well, I better go get ready. Morgan might think it’s weird if I’m at your place when he picks us up.”

She stands to walk him through the door, kissing him softly before pushing him out, “’M gonna need that hour anyways, see you soon.”

He can hardly keep the grin off his face as he waits for her to shut the door. 

-x-X-x-

“At least we all live pretty close to each other.” Penelope is smiling at him from the passenger seat of the black SUV that Morgan had picked them up in. Morgan’s wearing this slightly metallic dark grey suit that seems to have been coordinated to go with Garcia’s evening dress of the same color. 

“You look great, Garcia.”

“Thanks BW, you’re not looking too bad yourself. I almost expected you to show up in a sweater.” She winks at him before spinning back around in her seat and he takes that moment to look down and pull at his lapels self-consciously. He was wearing a slim fit two button black suit with a dark blue shirt and a matching Tuscany patterned vest and tie. The suit was tighter than he was used to, but it complimented his figure pretty well and he was hoping that Rose would like it.

When they arrive at Roses’ apartments, he waits outside the SUV for her, hands in his pockets, and listens to Penelope and Derek chatter in the car. He takes a second to check the watch he’s wearing, wondering whether or not she’ll like how he looks or if She’ll even want to dance, and is slightly startled when he hears the door to her flat open. Suddenly, it was all quiet. 

She was beautiful and that was saying something considering he thought she was beautiful at 2am, sans makeup, wearing oversized pajamas. She was wearing a long, strapless nude fitted gown with black and gold lace and an illusion skirt. Her was stunned by her elegant up-do and soft makeup, her eyes lightly smoky and lips a dusty pink.

He reached a hand out to help her down the stairs, dropping it when he hears a low whistle behind him accompanied by Garcia’s voice, “Dang, baby girl!”

Rose is laughing and he has to wipe his palms against his pants to try and rid himself of some of the nerve.

“Alright, let’s get going you two! It’s 6 and this is a 45 minute drive, traffic permitting.”

He holds the door open and helps her into the car carefully, trying not to step on the small train. When he climbs in after her she brushes his knee lightly and he’s not so sure it’s on purpose until she leans over to whisper in his ear, “You’re looking very dapper tonight, Dr. Reid.”

He can feel his ears go red as he looks at her, “Thanks.”

She winks at him and he has to turn away to stop himself from leaning over to kiss her. Penelope chooses that instant to turn around and there’s an awkward moment where their eyes meet and he feels like she’s figured him all out, until she busts out laughing, “Aw! Look at him. You’d think he’d never seen a pretty girl before.”

“Shut up, Garcia.”

She winks at him before facing Rose and he’s just glad that she’s distracted, “Are you gonna dance with all the boys tonight, Rosie?”

“I know that she better save a dance for me.” Derek is looking back in the rearview and Spencer adverts his eyes, a ridiculous amount of jealousy rising in his chest that he has to stomp down. There was a reason they weren’t telling everyone, he just had to remember that. It had been his idea in the first place. 

He’s distracted as Rose laughs and he watches as she smiles at Morgan in the mirror, “’M sure I could fit you in my schedule somewhere.”

The girls’ spend the rest of the trip up I-95 gossiping about the dates Garcia had been on lately. It gets a little weird when Penelope asks if she’s seeing anyone.

“You bail out on me all the time. I’m no profiler, but that can only mean two things either you hate me or you’re seeing someone.”

“’course I don’t hate you!”

“Then out with it; I want the deetz, girlie.”

He tries not to stare at Rose while he waits for her response. He can tell she’s nervous, face turned towards the hands holding the clutch in her lap. He sees a coy smile curl at the corner of her mouth though and he’s trying to deduce why when she starts speaking, “Well, there is this guy. Really handsome, dresses fantastic, and he has some great hair – I mean some really great hair.”

He’s pretty sure he’s blushing before she flicks her hooded eyes towards him while she’s purring out those last words. He can hear the blood rushing in his ears and his heart pounding in his chest when she slowly stretches a hand across the seat and tangles her fingers with his own for a moment, giving them a gentle squeeze before pulling away.

“You hear that, Derek? Gonna have to grow your hair out if you want a shot with this beauty.”

Morgan is laughing in the front seat as he pulls off the highway, “Nah, I got the moves. Don’t need hair if you got the moves, Garcia.”

“Yeah, you gonna show me those moves?”

“Maybe.” 

He’s undoing his seat belt as they pull into the parking of the Sequoia and is pretty sure that he can’t get out of that vehicle fast enough, his feet hitting the pavement before it’s fully in park.

“Woah, Reid. You that hungry?”

He adjusts his jacket, holding the door open so that Rose can slide out when she’s ready, and gives Morgan a roll of his eyes, “No, just trying to get away from the two of you.”

Everyone is laughing as they step out of the car, Garcia hovering at his shoulder awkwardly as he lets Rose use his hand to get out herself. 

“Watch out, Reid. You might make her boyfriend jealous.”

He rolls his eyes as they begin to walk inside, not waiting on Derek to finish talking with the valet about how the boy needs to be ‘extra careful’. 

“So, why didn’t you invite him tonight?” 

He expects her to take her time with her answer, but she’s quick, “He doesn’t like events like these. He said ‘Telling an introvert to go to a party is like telling a saint to go to hell’.” 

He tries not to choke at the little bit of truth she’s spilled into the middle of her white lie about them. That was something he had actually said to her when they found out they would have to be at this event, “Killosophy by Criss Jami. I’m inclined to agree with your boyfriend.”

He doesn’t miss the way her eyes flick to him, a devious smile on her face, “I’m sure you’d be inclined to agree with a lot of my boyfriend’s views, Dr. Reid.”

That was the last thing said on the subject for the remainder of dinner. He found that he enjoyed himself a little bit sitting at a table surrounded by his peers. They did have to listen to a lot of speeches from the benefactors that he found he had no interest in, but all in all it wasn’t so bad. 

By the time their dessert course was cleared, Morgan was already on his feet asking Rose to dance. She responded with a soft yes and placed her hand gracefully in his own. He wanted to be jealous, but was more caught up in the beautiful way she danced, her dress flaring around her ankles when Derek spun her and how well she kept up with his movements. 

“Those two make quite the pair.” Hotchner is across the table from him and it’s not until he says anything that Spencer realizes that all their eyes are trained on their teammates, every one of them watching as they dance between the other bodies on the dance floor.

He only waits another moment before getting up to cut in, letting the song finish out before tapping Derek on the shoulder and waiting until he turns his head to steal Rose out of his arm, spinning her away while she laughs. He’s not much of a dancer though, so he lets her slowly lead them around the floor. 

When the song drops into something even slower he stops them, moving them out of the standard ballroom stance they’re in. He pushes her arm up so they’re both wrapped around his neck and drags her in closer, his arms wound around her waist as they rock to the music, “’She is a mortal danger to all men. She is beautiful without knowing it, and possesses charms that she’s not even aware of.’”

“Are you telling me I’m beautiful through a quote?” Her face is padded against his chest and shoulder, her voice lightly muffled.

“Yeah, I think I am. It’s from a book I read once. Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. I think that description fits you quite accurately. Besides, you’ve been told you were beautiful a hundred times tonight, I felt I needed something better.”

“All you need is you, Spencer. A compliment from you is worth a hundred easy.”

“Now who’s giving compliments?”

He wants to kiss her all night, but ends up kissing her at her doorstep after he tells Derek that he can walk from there. He never ends up going home that night, instead he spends it curled next to her in her bed, sleeping in the pajamas that he had left there one night after he had a rough evening after a case. 

He remembered now why they weren’t telling people. If they got everyone involved all of this would be a spectacle, it wouldn’t belong to them anymore it would belong to the world. And if they fell apart it wasn’t going to be something pretty or graceful, he liked her too much for this to end that way. No, if it ended at all it would be hideous and loud, either they spent the rest of their lives together or they were going to burn up in the flames they were creating. He found that he’d rather the former. She was molding herself into his life and he was beginning to wonder how he ever considered himself complete without her. 


	8. Dates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She doesn't want to like him as much as she does, but he makes it easier to ignore the emotions when he constantly stumbles over her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First date. Season 2 episode 18 of Criminal Minds

It had happened nearly every day that week and she was absolutely tired of it. She knew she was short, five feet five wasn’t much, but she wasn’t invisible. Maybe she dressed too muted, maybe she needed to wear higher heels, but if Spencer Reid didn’t stop running into her not even his doctorates would save him. He was cute and she liked him, but she was having a hard time keeping it that way when he had his head in the clouds and wasn’t paying attention to where he was walking.

She let out a frustrated noise as some of her coffee spilled down the front of her sweater, shaking her hand to try and rid herself of the pain from the burns she was sure she would have.

“I am so sorry, Dr. Tyler!” He was grabbing her cup from her and placing it on the counter, all the while reaching for paper towels.

“Don’t bother, I have a spare in my locker. Am I invisible, Dr. Reid?” She’s unbuttoning her sweater in a ferocious manner, trying her hardest not to outright yell at him.

He’s stopped moving and is flipping his head around to look at her, brushing his hair back from his face before he speaks, “W-what?”

“Am I. Invisible. Dr. Reid.” 

“N-no! Not at all! I just find that-“

“Then why do you run into me every day, without fail?”

He’s biting his lip and twisting his hands nervously and she’s ashamed of how much she enjoys seeing his lip between his teeth, “Sometimes I’m just completely out of it and I’ll be thinking about a case and won’t be looking where I’m going. I am really sorry, I don’t do it on purpose, I swear.”

She sighs as she peels off her wet sweater, hanging it over her arm to get it away from her shirt so that it doesn’t soak it as well, “Well, alright. Just pay more attention.”

She swipes her coffee from the counter and is walking off when he grabs for her arm, halting her movement further away from the poor excuse for a BAU break room, “Let me make it up to you.”

She gives him a face, eyes wide and lips lightly parted, as she glances from her arm to his face. He drops her quickly, ringing his hands nervously as he talks, “Let me buy you dinner. There’s this Italian restaurant in the city and if you are amenable to it then I could pick you up at 7 tonight?”

“Are you asking me out, Dr. Reid?” She can feel a smile trying to make itself known on her face, but she stamps it down. 

“No! I’m merely trying to find a satisfactory way to make up for all the sweaters I’ve ruined since you’ve begun working here.” He’s swiping his hair behind his ear and adjusting his clothes. She knows he’s lying, but she’ll let him come around on his own.

She gives him the tongue in teeth smile that she knows no one can resist, “It’s a date, Spencer. I’ll see you at 7 sharp.”

She turns and walks away, listening as he tries to insist it’s not a date and stumbling over his words in the process. She lets the smile come out full force then, grinning over the lip of her, now cold, coffee.

By the time seven rolls around she’s done her best to doll herself up, make-up done and hair curled into perfect waves. She’s wearing a flirty black dress that she bought years ago and has never worn, it’s got three quarter inch, lace sleeves and a low neckline that makes her girls, though small, look absolutely exquisite. The hem sits at her thighs, showing off her legs because she knows it’s her best asset, Jack was always telling her, “You’ve got legs for days, Rosie.” 

When he arrives on her doorstep she lets him stand outside for a moment, waiting by the door for no more than a minute before flinging it open, “Hi! Sorry, let me just grab my purse. Come in for a ‘mo?” 

She moves to let him in, checking him out as he moves past her, “You look really nice. Um, I like the dress. Is that Pablo Neruda?” 

She smiles at his backside, impressed that he’s slightly dressed up in a purple button up and black vest, “I don’t get to go out often, it feels good to dredge this up from my closet, but yes that’s Neruda. ‘The birds of night peck at the first stars, that flash like my soul when I love you’.” 

“Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair. I didn’t know that you liked poetry.”

She’s moving around, her heels clacking lightly on the floor as she grabs her clutch from the kitchen table, “’m afraid that there’s a lot you don’t know. Hopeless Romantic, me. I believe that poetry and music are the purest forms of love.”

She’s grabs the book from his hands setting it down on the table and links her arm with his to guide them out of the apartment, “Now, take me to this restaurant of yours, I’m famished.”

When they get to the restaurant, they spend much of the evening talking and connecting. Learning about what they have in common and what they don’t, though there’s not much that they don’t agree on. She knocks her foot against his a few time and enjoys the blushing and stuttering it causes as he tries to tell her about him graduating at such a young age. She’s sipping from a glass of sparkling moscato that she’s already forgotten the name of and trying not to make him too nervous with her gaze as she talks about her late start in life.

“I didn’t even start college until I was nineteen. I had a lot of catching up to do, I didn’t want to be old by the time I got my doctorate. So Jack, you remember him, he let me stay with him until I graduated. I went to two universities and was doing over thirty credit hours a semester, still made straight A’s though.”

His hands are on the table and she can tell that he’s fascinated, though he says it for her anyways, “That’s amazing. It must have been very difficult.”

“Yeah, but I think all that traveling helped me a bit. I was very ready to do something with my life by that point, I was tired of always running.”

When he reaches over to pay for the check, she reaches too. She slides it from under his fingers and smiles at him as she slips her card in.

“Wait! I’m supposed to pay, that was the deal.”

“Men pay on dates. I don’t see a problem with me paying if we’re out as colleagues.”

He grabs the check when she sets it back down, replacing her card with his own and setting hers in front of her, “I lied. I do want this to be a date.”

She’s knocked off guard by how bold he is, winded by his absolute sincerity, “Alright.”

“Alright.” He’s a bright shade of red that she can’t classify, but she feels all sorts of butterflies tumbling around in her stomach when he smiles at her. 

When he walks her back to her apartment at the end of the night she catches his hand in her own, amazed at how well they fit together. She can’t help but compare it to the last hand she held like this and is both pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised by how much better it is. She doesn’t want to replace the Doctor, doesn’t want to forget about him, but logically she knew that it was more than time to move on.

She’s staring down at their clasped hands as they walk, rubbing her free hand over the back of his own and amazed at how soft he is. She doesn’t realize that they’ve made it to her apartment until her pulls her to stop.

“So, we’re here.”

“Yeah.” She looks up at him reverently, his hand still clasped between her own, “I’d love to do this again sometime. If you’re ‘amenable’ to that.”

“I believe that I would be more than amenable.”

“Yeah?” She’s moving close to him, dragging his arms around her and guiding him to her waist.

“Yes.” 

By the time he answers she’s no more than a breath away from his mouth, she can almost feel the nervous energy coming off of him in waves as he wonders what’s going to happen next. She twines her hands into his hair softly and pulls him the rest of the way to her, closing her mouth over his in a soft kiss. He responds almost immediately, pulling her in tighter and kissing her just a bit harder.

She pulls away when she needs to breathe, resting her forehead against his, “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Rose.”

That was the first time he ever said her name.


	9. Vegas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That's what you get for getting drunk in Vegas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place sometime mid season 3.

“Oh, God. My head.” She’s trying not to move much, her hands heavy as she raises them to her head. Her entire body ached and she had no memories last night after they had all finished the case. 

“Shhhh.” The voice is beside her and she barely cracks an eye to see who it is, not surprised to see that it’s Spencer, but very surprised that they’re in the same room together.

“Spence?” She leans up, groaning, “What are you doing in here? Someone’s gonna catch us.”

He’s up quickly and she can barely contain a laugh at how frantic he looks with his rumpled clothes and disheveled hair. She brings a hand up again to hold her head, but stops halfway when she sees something glaringly wrong; there’s a ring resting on her left hand that definitely hadn’t been there the day before. 

“S-Spencer? Oh my god, Spencer.” She’s twisting it on her finger and shoving it in his face and she can hear that her voice has gone up several notches, but she can’t control it, “What is this? What is this?! No, no, no, no, oh my god, no no no.”

He’s grabbing at her hand to stop her from flicking it about in front of his face and she knows that logically she’s given the second worst response ever to this situation, “Oh don’t take that the wrong way. I love you, but what did we do?”

“I am not entirely sure. The last thing I remember was going to dinner after the case.”

“I don’t even remember that. I just remember standing in the police department and finishing the case.” 

He looks up at her from her hand before crawling out of bed quickly, “We need to go talk to everyone.”

“We can’t do that! They’ll find out.”

He stops in the center of the room where he is adjusting his clothes, his face coming up swiftly to look at her, “Rose, we’re missing time. Hours of time, we need to talk to everyone. We could have been drugged.”

“Drugged and forced to get married? I don’t think so.”

“This is important. This isn’t something we can just blow off. We were going to tell them one day, now seems like a really good time. They might be able to tell us what happened. Why don’t you want anyone to know? Are you ash-“

“Ashamed? No! I’m absolutely proud to be yours, but our relationship is exactly that – It’s ours. I like being able to come home to you and glare at women who look at you when we’re on dates, but work is work. I don’t want anyone to treat us with kid gloves and stop pairing us together just because we’re dating. “

He’s quiet for a moment and then lets out a sigh, his voice a whisper when he finally speaks, “You’re right. You’re absolutely right, maybe we don’t have to tell anyone. I think I have an idea.”

-x-X-x-

“You have reached the goddess and keeper of all knowledge, speak now.”

“Hey Garcia, darling, most beautiful thing to have ever –“

“Oh, that’s a lot of sweet talk Dr. Tyler, what could you possibly be sugar coating me for?”

“I’m going to let you in on a secret and I really need your help, but you can’t tell anyone.”

“Oh dear, this sounds like a pretty juicy secret.”

Rose is nervous, her heart pounding in her chest as she looks between the phone and her only recently acquired husband.

“It is. Look, so you know that guy I’ve been dating that you‘ve been pestering me to meet?”

“Why yes, the man with the gorgeous hair. What about him?”

“You already know him.”

“I do! Ooh! I love guessing games, don’t tell me. Is it Jack? Oh, I bet-“

“Hi, Garcia.”

“Reid?” There’s a lot of silence from the other end then what sounds like a bunch of pens clattering to the floor, papers being shuffled around on a desk, “No way – No fricken’ way! This whole time, oh my god! Wait a minute, wait a minute, you said you needed a favor. What does you telling me this information have to do with this favor?”

It was their turn to be silent. She’s twirling the ring around on her finger, glancing between the phone and Spencer and trying to decide how to proceed, but she doesn’t have too because he decides for her.

“We lost a lot of time last night, Garcia. We need you to figure out where we lost it and why.”

“Like retrace your steps?”

“Yes.” He reaches across and takes her hand, pulling her into his lap to stop her from fiddling. His fingers lace with hers and she tries to relax, letting him slip the ring off and set it on the table. He kisses her hand softly, first all her fingers, then her palm.

“I think I can do that. Where was the last place you remember being?”

“The Lindo.”

“Alright! Give me just a minute, uh-huh, okay, and – got it! So, last night you had dinner with everyone and it looks like you both stayed for drinks until about closing time. After that, you’re credit card record –“ 

“Hey!”

“You told me to find out, this is finding out hunny. Your credit card records and camera footage show you heading to Ghostbar and –woah Tony Danza, you spent around a hundred on drinks. That’s not what worries me though, what worries me is the fact that by 2am you two were married. Seriously guys, was this your roundabout way of making the announcement? Because this is not – “

Spencer sighs and she’s glad not to have to do the talking, “No, we’re trying to figure out how we got there.”

It’s silent and then Penelope is laughing so hard that Rose’s insides turn, her face set into a heavy frown, “It’s not funny Nel, this is serious.”

“Oh god you guys. Do you want to know what I think happened? Because I think that you got black out drunk and decided it was a good idea to get hitched and you’re looking for an out here. At some point last night, the two of you thought that getting married was the best idea ever, you’re just gonna have to live with that or, you know, get the damn thing annulled. Ah, divorce before thirty, you haven’t even been together 24 hours, you’re putting Britney to shame.”

Penelope hangs up on them then and the room is an almost tangible silence. She wants to speak, she really does, but all she feels like doing now is crying.

“We don’t have to do anything about it, you know.” His voice is meek, as if he didn’t want to know what she thought of this idea, but she’s happy he said it anyways.

“No, we can’t do that.” She turns to look at him, a light smile on her face, “When I marry you Spencer, I want it to be a big thing. I want a beautiful wedding with our friends and family and I want to remember signing those papers. So, we’ll figure this out.”

And they did. They filed for the divorce using the address for his home in Las Vegas, the one he continued to pay for even though his mom was being taken care of. It took six weeks, and a scolding from his mother as she signed for them as a witness, but it happened. It was the strangest thing, standing in a court room and having to tell them that it had nothing to do with not loving each other and everything to do with wanting to have a wedding they remembered. There was nothing to contest except that two people, who were very much in love, got black out drunk then accidentally married.

All-in-all, it wasn’t the worst end to a case. Though Penelope laughed for weeks every time she saw them.  


	10. Anthrax

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She wasn't prepared for this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Criminal Minds - Season 4, episode 24  
>  [](http://s19.photobucket.com/user/inuyasha_kagome0001/media/Commission%20fayeXsilo.png.html)  
> 
> 
> Beautiful art that I had commissioned for this story by [AnaKris](http://anakris.deviantart.com/) on deviantart

She was losing touch, she knew that. She used to care so much about every person she met, but this job had led her to become so insensitive in certain situations. Right now was one of those situations. There was an anthrax scare, people were dying and others were worried that they couldn’t contact their families. Yet here she was, relieved, because everyone she cared about was here with her. 

It was an awful feeling that was clashing with everything she knew she should be feeling – worried, frantic, pressured, but definitely not relieved. She felt like she was insulting JJ, who had a baby and a boyfriend to worry about just downwind from what could potentially become the hot zone. 

She was feeling one other emotion though – anger. The office was crowded with military personnel, obstructing her from getting around as quickly as she normally would. She was trying to stay around Spencer while still doing her job, but it was difficult. She had no real explanation for why she had to go everywhere he went, she just needed to be close to him and it was hard to do without blowing the cover on their relationship. They’d been together a little under 2 years and they had still managed to keep it quiet. Penelope was the only one who knew and they wanted to keep it that way.

They were finally making a little headway in the case, having finally found a man that fit their profile – Dr. Nichols. Prentiss and Rossi went to his job, but she opted for going with Spencer and Derek to the man’s house instead to see what they could find there. She walked around one way while they headed off the other, hand secure against her hip in case she had to draw her weapon. 

That’s when she heard it, Morgan screaming for Spencer. She ran the rest of the way around, following his voice to find him banging on a sliding glass door. She approached slowly, hesitantly. Her heart dropped and she was feeling very lucky that she didn’t drop herself.

He’s giving her a face that she’s never seen before, but one that she could immediately read as terrified and apologetic, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Rose.”

She’s pulling at the door by this point, a frantic sob coming out of her mouth followed by a low scream, “No, no, no! You’re all I have! I can’t – This can’t!”

“Rose, stop. Shh, shh, it’s okay. It’s okay. We have to keep working, I’m gonna make it through this, but we have to keep working.”

Derek is pulling her away and making calls, but she can’t hear his voice over the blood rushing in her ears. All she sees is Spencer pacing around the work space, searching for anything that might lead them to the antigen. She waits with Morgan, standing paralyzed as everyone arrives. 

It’s only when he’s fighting with Hotchner about leaving the building that she walks back over, waiting by the door and watching him work. Everyone is trying to get her to move so they can set up an area, but she can’t do it. He’s in there fighting this battle alone, she can’t just leave him.

“’Reid’? Wow, no uh, no witty Garcia greeting for me?” It’s as he’s speaking into his phone that he notices her. He walks over and she barely hold herself together as he places a hand against the glass, her own rising of its own volition to mirror his against the pane, “Garcia, do you think you could do something for me? I, uh- I know I can’t call my mom without alerting everyone at her hospital. I need you to record a message for her in case anything happens to me.”

He’s clearing his throat and making her nervous and it’s then that it finally sets in, the fact that he is sick with this disease. Her Spencer was dying right in front of her and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She knows the instant her face crumbles, can see it mirrored back to her in his own. She’s sobbing uncontrollably, her hand curling against the glass.

“I hope you’re right, but if you’re not I just – I really want to make sure that she hears my voice. Are you ready?” He pauses before continuing to speak and she reigns herself in just enough to listen, “Hi, mom. This is Spencer. I just, um… I just really want you to know that I love you and I --- I need you to know that I spend every day of my life proud to be your son. You and Rose, you have to take care of each other. You’re all she’ll have, mom. I- I’ve gotta go.”

They’re interrupted by Dr. Kimura, who’s having her escorted away so that they can get into the body lying on the floor and prep it for a transfer. 

She can’t see him from where she’s at now and she’s not sure if that’s making it better or worse, but she was better than all this blubbering and she knew that. So, she straightened her spine and tried to stand beside Hotchner like the agent she was trained to be. 

“How long has this been going on?”

“I don’t know, a few hours. Time seems to fly when it’s one of your own.”

“I don’t mean him being sick. Don’t play dumb, Dr. Tyler.  Team mates do not break down like I just watched you do in there.”

She’s biting at her thumb, spinning to face him, “He’s all I have, Hotch. He’s everything to me. I lost my family, I lost my home, but I found all of that in him. We’ve been together almost two years. I’m not leaving – You can’t make me leave.”

It’s quiet for a while, as if he’s appraising everything she said and weighing it on some unseen scale to decide whether it matters or not. Ultimately he relents, sighing as he rubs a hand over her shoulder, “I could never ask you to leave, Rose.”

She gives him a look for a moment, standing in the silence and trying to find the words to thank him, but they just weren’t coming. It’s about then that she notices Derek is entering the decontamination tent. She nods at Hotchner before quickly following the path that her co-worker had just taken.

“I’m about to get naked so they can scrub me down. Is that something you really want to see?”

She laughs lightly, trying to belay her nerves, “It’s a pretty good show, Morgan.”

The man is shaking his head at her, hands up as he starts to recede from the tent, “Call me later.”

“Dr. Reid? Did you cut yourself?”

Time seems to stand still for a minute as all eyes turn to his hand. If he’d cut himself then he would be much shorter on time than anticipated- much, much shorter. She’s frowning, eyes trained on his face. He’s got an awful look of realization that she wishes he didn’t have, but knows that he can’t control.

Everyone is moving much quicker now and she doesn’t have to ask why, it’s completely obvious that they were feeling pressed for time.

-x-X-x-

She didn’t get to ride in the ambulance with them to the hospital, but she did follow behind in the SUV that Hotchner left for her. She arrives moments after them, listening as they scream to each other about his Aspasia and respiratory distress. 

They make her wait in the visitors area for hours while they try to get him stabilized, her knee shaking wildly. She jumps every time she hears a noise, standing and hoping that they’re coming to tell her that he’s awake and responsive. However, that never happens. When they do come to get her it’s to let her know that he seems to be responding to treatment and that they’ve made him as comfortable as possible. She knew that this was logically one of the better outcomes, but it was still heartbreaking.

She sits beside him all evening, dozing off at one point before being startled by a light knock at the door sometime in the early morning.

“How’s he doing?”

Hotchner is standing in the doorway, Morgan just over his shoulder, “Better. He, uh, responded well to the treatment. Just sleeping, they gave him Morphine. He’ll be mad, he, uh – he…”

She’s crying as Derek pulls a chair up beside her, putting an arm around her shoulder and letting her bury her head in his side, “You wanna tell us about whatever is going on between the two of you?”

“We’ve been together for almost two years. At first we didn’t tell anyone in case it didn’t work out, then we weren’t telling anyone because it was something that belonged to us. It wasn’t ‘cause we were ashamed or trying to be sneaky, but work was always supposed to be work. We didn’t want to be treated differently just because we were together. We honestly were going to tell everyone, but no time ever seems right.” She pulls away, wiping at her eyes, “We love each other and we’ve just sort of let everything fall where it may.”

Hotchner is nodding his head, arms crossed as he continues to stand in the doorway, “Okay. Well, call me if anything changes. Take some time off, Rose. We’ll see you in the office when Reid’s better.”

He’s gone before she has time to respond and she laughs at the absurdity of how easy that conversation had been. 

“You should get some sleep. I’ll stay and watch over him.”

She shakes her head quickly, her hand reaching out to take Spencer’s on the bed, “No, nope, I’m staying. I’ll sleep here.”

Morgan puts his hands up defensively, “Alright, alright.”

She starts to doze off a little while later, her head against her boyfriend’s hand. She’s in that awkward half asleep state when she feels someone lay something over her and the sound of a container being opened.

“Are you eating Jell-o?” 

She wants to lift her head at the sound of that raspy voice, but feels too worn out to do so. Her eyes opening only slightly before falling shut again.

A deep laugh followed by a shushing noise, “Your girl has been up here all night. I think she’s just fallen asleep.”

“Oh!”

The hand under her head moves, brushing her cheek gently with a sigh, “I love her.”

“I think I got that man. It’s gonna take me a bit to get used to this. Some things are making a lot more sense now.”

“So, what happened?”

“You’re gonna be alright, kid. We got Brown, it’s over.”

“What about Abby?”

A third voice enters the room that she’s only vaguely familiar with, but thinks is the doctor that has been assisting them, “She’s on the mend. So are the three others. You were right about where to look for the cure.”

She tried to maintain consciousness for a little bit longer, but the repetitive motion of Spencer’s hand over her face and hair cause her to doze off. 

By the time she wakes up again it is late afternoon, the sound of laughter startling her and causing her to shift. She raises her head in a smooth motion, blinking the sleep from her eyes and trying to focus on the room around her.

“Afternoon, sleeping beauty.” Derek is smirking at her from across the hospital bed, Garcia’s smiley face at his shoulder. She catches JJ and Prentiss near the foot of the bed and it’s then that her brain catches up and remembers where she’s at.

“Spencer!” She whips her head around quickly to look at his surprisingly bright face. Leaning over as carefully as possible, she frames his face with her hands as she brushes her lips against his several times over. 

He’s laughing against her mouth and she can feel everyone staring but she doesn’t care. She pulls away after a few moments, resting her forehead against his own and just breathing him in. 

“Man, this is gonna be weird.”

She leans back, sewing her fingers through his before shooting her eyes at Derek, “Only if you let it.”

His hands are up in a defensive manner, but he’s smiling like the rest of them.

Prentiss is sitting on the edge of the foot of the bed and laughing softly before speaking, “I want to say that this is strange, but it makes sense – in its own weird way. You two are kind of perfect for each other.”

Spencer is laughing and she can’t take her eyes off of him, overwhelmed by the fact that he’s lucky to be alive, “You probably wouldn’t be saying that if you had been there for the book incident.”

Everyone is curious now, pushing him to tell the story and laughing as they remember some of the better moments from that day in the office. Each of them made fun of some of the things that had been said that had never made sense at the time, but fell perfectly into place when he explained where it was coming from. 

She listens quietly, laughing at the appropriate places and extremely glad when he omits the romp they had on the dining room table. It had been their first real fight, though certainly not their last. For now, she was just glad he was alive.

It was in this instant, as he’s laughing with everyone and looking at her every chance he gets, that she realizes that she’s going to love this man as much as she can for as long as she can. He’d become her world and she hadn’t even realized it.


	11. Twelve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He was falling - fast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [](http://s19.photobucket.com/user/inuyasha_kagome0001/media/Faye-commission.jpg.html)
> 
> Beautiful Art I commissioned for this Story by [MisterLIAR](http://misterliar.deviantart.com/) on deviantart

It was their 12th date (he knew, he counted) and he fell harder and harder every time he saw her. Which was alarmingly often since they worked together. 

She was an armful of tan skin and wavy blonde hair and if he'd seen her in passing he would have thought she was beautiful, but she wouldn't have been more than an attractive stranger. Someone who he thought would have been vapid and shallow. He knew her so much deeper than her skin though, knew that she was the brightest person in his circle (aside from himself) and that she could best him in many ways even on her worst days.

They were on their 12th date and she was absolutely beautiful, one hand in his and the other wrapped around a latte that they were sharing. She was swaying her free hand animatedly as she talked about the first time she ever met Jack. She's got a large smile on and a light flush to her cheeks that matches the color of her loose pink sweater.  

She's wearing a pair of shorts and these tall, black thigh highs, a sliver of skin between the end of one and the beginning of the other, and he's trying really hard not to stare at her endless legs.

He's not really sure why someone as great looking as her would choose to be with someone who looked like him and he's not really sure why he said that out loud.

"Wha'?"

He opens and closes his mouth a few times, looking around at the trees in the park he'd taken her to before asking again, "Why are you with me when you could be with someone who is probably more suited for you? When you think of it from an anthropological point of view I am, by far, not the best match."

She's looking at him like he just drooled on himself and he's slightly offended until she speaks, "The way I feel about you can't be described from an anthropological stand point. I can't quantify my feelings for you with science. It's not about how you look, it's who you are behind those sweaters and glasses."

"You're absolutely gorgeous, Spencer. Every part of your mind, body, and soul speaks to me and makes me feel things that I never thought I could feel again." her hand is tight in his own and she's hooked her arm around his neck to drag him closer, the coffee cup lightly grazing the back of his head.

She dragging him down softly, her face still alight with a soft grin, "You are more than I could've hoped for, ta. I'll not have you smearing your own good name."

Her mouth is soft on his and he's trying hard not to smile while he kisses her back. She's moved to loop both of her arms around him, limbs hanging loosely as she ghosts her lips gently over his own. 

He stops her with a gusty laugh, pleasantly surprised by the soft giggle he receives in return. He thinks he loves her, but he's not dumb enough to say it yet. 

"Here, hold this." she's pushing the cooling cup into his hand while she reaches into her back pocket. Her phone is in his line of sight in a moment and he's genuinely curious as to why.

"I want a photo. You know, of us. Together."

She looks shy about it but he pulls the little device from her hands and holds it out, "I have longer arms, it'll turn out better if I do it."

"I hope you're not suggesting I'm bad at taking pictures." she's moved to stand behind him, arms wrapped around his shoulders as he fiddles with the settings.

"I would never dream of it." he smiles big at the camera and is delighted by her accompanying laugh. He wants to look at her in this moment, to see what face she's making, but settles for looking at the phone afterwards.

He's still wrapped up in her arms and her head is resting against his shoulder as she breathes out a soft sigh, "I love it."

"Yeah?"

She's nodding her head and kissing his neck before she speaks, "We should get it framed someday."

"I completely agree." his lips find hers on the first try. He has to follow her mouth as she settles back down from her tiptoes onto the balls of her feet, her smile pressed against his as he carefully slides the phone back into her pocket.

“So, what about me?”

He drags himself away from her to continue their walk, her hand fit snugly in his own, “What about you?”

“Why are you with someone like me? I’m an estate girl, no family. I didn’t even do anything with my life until I was almost twenty.” She’s gingerly prying the cup out of his hand as he goes to take a sip and he frowns slightly until she gives him that tongue-in-teeth smile over the rim. His heart skips a beat, “You graduated high school at twelve.”

“I think you forget how smart you are, Rose. You’re ridiculously driven and you got your degrees in half the time it would have taken the average person. I’m attracted to you because of your intellect, not your past. Mine wasn’t that great either, if you recall.”

“’ve heard I’m pretty easy on the eyes as well.”

“Very easy. Did Jack tell you that? Very American saying. Are you losing touch with your roots, Dr. Tyler?”

She responds by bumping her hips against his, causing him to stumble slightly, “And everyone thinks I’m rude.”

“You called me American.” 

He smiles at her softly, “It’s not the worst thing you could be.”

“You’re right. I could be losing.”

“Losing what?”

“The race.”

He’s confused for a second as she gives him that smile again, “What?”

“Catch me if you can!” She takes off at a run and he’s slow to react for a moment, caught off guard by the way the sun catches her hair.

He was definitely in love with her, but he still wasn’t stupid enough to say it.


	12. Realities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dreams and nightmares can be one in the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place at some point after they move in together.

The stars were beautiful, constellations coming together before her eyes as the Doctor pointed them out in the sky.

“Way over that way – no, that way – wait, no, yes, definitely that way. Way that way is Women Wept, you remember?”

Their feet are dangling over the edge of the Tardis doorway, his chucks and her sneakers kicking softly at the stardust, “’Course I remember. I remember all our trips.”

She’s tangled her fingers with his against the floor, can feel his eyes on her while she stares at the millions of planets and stars and galaxies hovering in the sky. She feels like they’re close enough to touch, her free hand reaching out to swipe lightly across the nearest collapsing star they’d stopped to watch, “It’s beautiful.”

“Yes, yo- it is, very beautiful.” 

She moves her eyes to meet his, whisky on brown. They stare for a few moments, moments where she thinks he’ll finally say something. He doesn’t, instead he turns back towards the stars, unlacing their fingers and simply gazing out at the sky.

She feels a deep weight in her chest, but turns away, “What d’you think happens after we die, Doctor?”

“We’ll never die, Rose. Stuff of legend, you and I.”

“Everything dies, Doctor, everyone. You said that once. You want to know what I think?”

He’s silent and she wonders if he’s upset by the question or just waiting for the answer. She hopes for the latter as she continues to speak, “I think that we all become stardust, dancing among the stars for eternity. How does that sound?”

“You and I, traveling the stars forever? Doesn’t sound half-bad.”

The weight in her chest grows heavier, tears welling in her eyes as she moves her hand to grab his again. She looks at him, drinks him in, wants to remember everything about him and she’s not sure why.

“Rose?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. There’s something – something is wrong. It’s not right.” Her free hand is grazing his cheek and she can feel a tear dribbling down her own, “I loved you, so much.”

Slowly, and then all at once she was awake. She began to sob softly, chest shaking as she gripped the hand in hers firmly. She was still acclimating to her surroundings as she rolled over to cling to the prone body next to her, the fingers of her free hand curling around their t-shirt as she bit at her bottom lip to try and stifle her whines and whimpers. 

She remembers now who she’s lying next to, a deep sense of guilt pulling at her. She felt that she had unintentionally betrayed him somehow, as if dreaming about being there meant she didn’t want to be here. That, however, was the opposite of true. 

She heard him, then, through all of her thoughts and tears. He had tangled his hand in her hair and was quietly shushing her, trying to calm her with soothing words. 

“It’s alright. I’m here.”

She doesn’t stifle her cries anymore, openly sobbing into his shoulder, “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, Spencer.”

He moves, pulling her against him tightly. Her feelings of guilt worsening as he began to speak, “You don’t have to be sorry for waking me up. I was startled, yes, but that’s okay.”

“That’s not why I’m sorry. I mean – that’s a part of it but it’s not the entirety of it.” She’s taking deep, even breaths to calm herself, the tears slowing enough for her to continue speaking, “I’m sorry because I feel guilty.”

“Why would you feel guilty? Has something happened?” He’s put her at a distance now so she can see his face, can read the worry on there by his furrowed brow and lightly parted lips.

“It’s not like that! I just – I dreamed about the Doctor.”

“Oh. OH. Like –“

“No! Not like that! We were sitting at the door of the TARDIS, watching the collapse of a star. We were holding hands and I – I told him that I thought that when we die we go back to the stars. He told me-“ She takes a minute to breathe “He told me that us traveling the stars together wouldn’t be half-bad. I started crying and woke myself up. It just felt so real and I feel so bad that I wanted to stay. It was so real, so –“ She’s crying again, uncontrollably.

He’s pushing the hair back from her face and there is a small smile on his own as he does so, the furrow between his brows nowhere in sight, “Rose, you can’t control what you dream about.”

“I know! I know that, but I don’t want to be there anymore; I want to be here, with you. It just felt wrong. I loved my time there, in the TARDIS, with the Doctor, but I love you.”

““Strange, I thought, how you can be living your dreams and your nightmares at the very same time.””

She’s wiping the tears from her eyes and staring at him, “What?”

“Ransom Riggs, Hollow City. It’s just – at one point in time, the Doctor and the Tardis were your dreams and being anywhere but there would have been a terrible thing. Now, you find yourself at odds with that aspiration. This life would have been a nightmare to you; trapped worlds away from the Doctor and the people you love. You found a new life here, happiness with your feet planted on the ground and in the same time day in and day out. It’s okay to feel that loss and to dream about that life; I would go as far to say that something would be wrong if you didn’t.”

She can feel her chin wobbling as she tries not to cry, her hands clenching and unclenching as she tries to control herself. She moves, peppering his face with sloppy kisses, “I love you, I love you, I love you.”

“I know.”

“I love you and your silly quotes and ridiculous facts. I love how you rationalize everything and make me feel less idiotic for the way that ‘m feeling. You’re amazing and wonderful and everything I never knew that I wanted.”

It’s quiet for a while as she cries into his neck, her breathe blowing back at her in warm waves as she begins to drift off again.

She hears him speak softly when she’s on the precipice, half-way between wakefulness and being completely asleep, “I love you because there is no one like you and you are like nobody because I love you.”

Slowly, then all at once she is asleep once more. 


End file.
